Restrap
Restrap produces functional, durable and sustainable bags and equipment for travelling by bike. Since its founding in 2010, the business has become known for its high-quality technical bikepacking gear. Its products are manufactured and tested in the UK and used by bikers all around the world.
Founder Nathan Hughes has grown Restrap into a close-knit team of machinists, designers, product testers and business and sales support staff. Headquartered in a large workshop in Leeds, Yorkshire, Restrap now employs 75 people and turns over more than £4million per year.
“I would like to recommend Smart IT for their invaluable assistance in implementing our new systems. Their input and guidance proved essential in identifying areas where our software could improve business efficiency, ultimately contributing to our increased profitability. Smart IT is a reliable partner that helps to enhance technology solutions.”
Nathan Hughes, Managing Director, Restrap.
The Challenge
Like many fast-growing businesses, Restrap faced challenging growing pains. This included scaling up manufacturing operations and systems to support business growth.
As well as managing a hotch-potch of different systems, Restrap was grappling with a need to increase manufacturing productivity. Its products compete with manufacturers based in Taiwan and the Far East, where wages are much lower than the UK. Proud of its Yorkshire heritage, Restrap wanted to maintain its manufacturing operations in the UK. To ensure this, productivity needed to improve.
In June 2021, the Restrap team began looking for a solution to help with material planning and production management that could boost productivity and efficiency.
The requirement was timebound. The incumbent planning software Restrap had been using was being retired following acquisition by a larger technology company. Restrap needed to find a replacement system within 12 months.
The Solution
Restrap reviewed a number of different manufacturing systems before discovering Odoo and Smart IT. The team were impressed by the comprehensive features offered by the Odoo Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) solution and its affordable price point.
The potential to customise the solution and to integrate with other existing solutions used by Restrap were key factors in the decision to adopt Odoo ERP.
The proximity of the Smart IT team gave further reassurance to Restrap. Smart IT spent time onsite in Leeds working with the Restrap team to understand its operations and system requirements. Restrap has some unique systems and untraditional manufacturing processes. It was important that the new system could meet the needs of these processes, rather than requiring Restrap to bend its processes to an inflexible solution.
Smart IT produced a gap analysis to enable a complete understanding of how Odoo would meet Restrap’s process and manufacturing requirements. Together, they produced a rollout plan which identified system requirements and necessary customisations, built a data migration schedule and managed the implementation and adoption.
With the support of Smart IT, Restrap deployed Odoo ERP modules covering contact management, sales, ecommerce, purchasing, inventory and manufacturing. Biweekly meetings helped the project stay on track and reduced the overall duration of the project. Smart IT assisted through the various stages of functional and user acceptance testing. This way, iterations and changes could be implemented quickly and a high-quality solution ultimately delivered.
Restrap founder, Nathan Hughes was surprised by the amount of planning the rollout required but was very pleased with the implementation process. Allowing a budget for rework and development enabled the Restrap team to tailor the solution to their needs as the rollout and testing continued.
Thanks to this close collaboration, the Odoo ERP solution was delivered well ahead of the impending deadline.
Conclusion
Restrap is now using Odoo to manage all of its manufacturing operations and inventory management. The reporting of these activities has vastly improved. Restrap management now have daily production reports with real-time, accurate information, aiding improved decision making.
The team on the shopfloor has enthusiastically embraced the solution. They are looking for more ways to automate and boost productivity.
The new website functionality has also saved time. Now, Restrap’s business customers can purchase products and manage orders directly on the website thanks to the integration of the Odoo ecommerce module.
The flexibility and comprehensive functionality of Odoo ERP have given the Restrap team confidence that they have future-proofed their ERP solution.
In the future, it may be possible to migrate more business operations onto the platform for a more comprehensive and integrated ERP solution. This would allow Restrap to retire more third-party systems and further minimise the burden of IT management. For example, the Restrap team are assessing the possibility of switching to Odoo for its accounting and financial operations.
For now, the team is happy the integration achieved between Odoo and Restrap’s incumbent financial software, but the flexibility of Odoo leaves the door open for further rationalisation and streamlining.